Figure 1 – Lone Cypress at Windaersheek Beach, Gloucester, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2019.

I took the photograph of Figure 1 at Windaersheek Beach on Cape Ann in Gloucester, MA this past Sunday with my iPhone XS. It was a gloomy and wonderful day. You may be interested in the origin of the name “Windaersheek.” According to the USGS the name is a corruption of the earlier Dutch name “Wyngaerts Hoeck”, which was derived from “Wyngaerton” (meaning “Vineland”). The image shows a lone cypress at a cut in the dune line. Whatever mother or erotic elements the image has, it is meant to emphasize the grayness of the day and the end of September light. Nature moves seamlessly into autumn now. The fall color are glorious, but absent here. Instead, we have a lone tree that has for many years withstood the Atlantic winds. It isn’t quite thriving, not is it failing. It is a sentinel, a kind of witness.